By Danny Porter

Yesterday, I tried again. I took a risk, and tried something I’ve done before.

And this time it worked.

Over the years I’ve attempted to forge my own way, pitch my own project, and work towards achieving a goal. 

And most of the time it doesn’t work. 

There have been countless times where my idea, my pitch, my plan falls short. It is left in the pile, pigeon-holed, relegated to pursuits that led nowhere.

But yesterday, it worked.

An idea, a pitch, worked, and I was stunned, and excited, and nervous.

I’d gotten really good at thinking of ideas that were rejected or neglected, but then I got my yes. It made me nervous to now be on the hook for something that I needed to complete, that now I was accountable for.

It was everything I wanted, and now I got it.

What changed? What made this pitch different than the others?

I’m not sure. I know what I did to bring it up, how I anticipated the questions and prepared solutions, and then asked for input, but I did that before.

But everything was different. Maybe my previous pitches were misaligned to other strategic goals, or weren’t communicated effectively to help win over the decision maker’s heart.

I’m so grateful that I tried again.

Now I have a story that says I do think of helpful ideas that do get accepted, and can be completed (even though I still need to see it to the end).

So what did I do differently? It’s not to say that these tools were the tools that made the difference, but these tools were all the tools that I could control. There’s always reasons why good ideas don’t see the light and find themselves left to collect dust, but from what I could can control—what you can control, here are some tips I’ll share with you that helped me this time.

1. I tried again. This might sound simple, and definitely not novel. But sometimes, our ideas don’t get accepted because we simply don’t try again. We don’t come with a new idea. We don’t keep coming up with new ideas. It was Wayne Gretzky who said, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” If your previous idea wasn’t received, that’s okay try again. Think of a new idea, and come back. This time, it might just stick.
2. I delivered it in a different way. It’s been said that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing in the same way hoping for a different result. Why would the same delivery mechanism produce a different result? Try something new. One time I wrote out a comprehensive, multi-page business plan. That didn’t work, but I learned. Another time I built out a 1-page business plan, short and succinct. That did work, but I learned. Every time I tried something and pitched it, I learned more about how to organize my thoughts and clearly communicate my end result. This time, I shared it in a 1:1. 
3. Anticipate questions. As I was going over the conversation in my head, I took some time to think through and anticipate, “What questions could they ask?” By thinking about potential questions, I came up with some potential answers. I knew by the personality of my leader that they wanted someone who could think ahead. Some of the questions I thought of were asked, some weren’t. Either way, I was ready with an answer to help keep the conversation moving forward to my desired result.
4. Read books. Okay, how did this time help me differently by reading books? There are a lot of books out there about how to effectively communicate vision, ideas, collaborate, negotiate, and create business plans. There were case studies in books that helped me put my project into context and recognize how I can align it to a strategic company goal, and who I could partner with to make it successful. Even books like How to Win Friends and Influence People gave me some great tools in how to build trust and elevate the people I needed to win over. 
5. I asked for input. Something recently I’ve learned from a leader is to ask questions. Now, I believe that I’m pretty good at asking questions, but this time I learned what kind of questions I needed to ask. Instead of asking, “What do you think?” I learned to ask, “What else am I missing? What do you see that I don’t see? Would this project be helpful for you?” By inviting not just approval, but collaboration, the project evolved and became even more effective. Their input helped give clarity and simplified the work ahead. It created the buy-in that I needed to get to yes.

But now I need to go and do the work. 

That will be the easy part. 

The hard part will be pitching the next idea. But next time will be easier, because I’ve learned something this time around that will help me the next time.